The End of Fair Use: Copy-Protected CD's in Stores Now

Related link: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-6604222.html

You have to hand it to the RIAA. I thought they were on the ropes, their digital subscription services look doomed for failure before they even launch. Even though they've succeeded in killing off Napster, file-traders have since jumped to any one of the number of alternatives to Napster and flourished. Today we found out about the sucker punch that they had in store for all consumers, while destroying the idea of fair-use of their products in the process.

For the past several months, an undisclosed number of record labels have been shipping CD's with copy-protection watermarking interleaved onto the CD. If one were to attempt to rip tracks from their new CD onto their computer and converting them over to MP3's for their daily jog, they would find that the music now has very audible clicks and pops, making the music mostly unlistenable.

They may have lost their battle against the Diamond Rio MP3 player, but who cares when you just remove the capability to convert your files over to the MP3 format? Remember making mix CD's for friends? Forget it if you want to put anything on there post-summer 2001.

The fact that the labels decieved the general public by not disclosing their secret upfront is very disappointing. This is a disturbing escalation in the war against piracy, as consumers are now strapped to whatever playback device the record labels dictate is acceptible to them. How many bridges will the RIAA have to burn with the public before there isn't a public to cater to? We like music, we like the fact that we can move it around to different formats, wether it be CD, cassette, or MP3. I have somewhere along the lines of 1000 songs on my hard drive, most from CD's I've purchased. Now the RIAA is telling me that I'll have to buy a CD and subscribe to one or both of their online services in order to enjoy my music from both my PC and my car stereo?

The only people who are happy with this news is the RIAA and used CD stores, who will probably make a killing for the next few months.....

Good bye fair use, I wish we could've made everybody happy